This paper presents an overview of recent U.S. fiscal developments and discusses possible implications of the sharp turn around in the government’s fiscal position. Against this back ground, it also reviews key policy challenges that will need to be addressed to cope with the mounting...

Despite the increasing interest in universal health care, little is known about the optimal way to finance, design, and implement it. This paper attempts to fill this gap by providing some general policy recommendations on this important issue. While most of the paper addresses the Eastern...

The Santa Clara County Children’s Health Initiative seeks to provide coverage through the Healthy Kids initiative to all children in the county whose family incomes are below 300 percent of the federal poverty level. This brief provides new evidence on the effects of insurance coverage on...

This chartbook provides a snapshot of Medicaid pharmacy benefit use and reimbursement in 2003 and shows key trends from 1999 to 2003.

This report provides state-level data on annual and quarterly enrollment in SCHIP and Medicaid, from fiscal years 1998 through 2001. It augments the 39;47 annual reports on SCHIP enrollment trends by (1) using information on program characteristics to analyze differences in state enrollment...

Mathematica evaluated five health care reform proposals for the state of Washington in 2008. The proposals featured, respectively: reduced regulation in the current market; Massachusetts-style insurance reforms with a health insurance connector; a health partnership program similar to the...

This article considers the effect of changing household wealth on changes in utilization.

Describes the Medigap market in 1999, both nationally and by state, and compares the national profile in 1999 with that in 1997 to show how the market is changing. Notes that one third of all Medigap policies were pre-standard in 1999, and standard forms F, C, and B accounted for 48 percent of...

Examines two generations of Social HMOs (S/HMO I and S/HMO II), models of managed care that incorporate additional long-term care benefits and care coordination services for Medicare beneficiaries. Finds that one of the three S/HMO I plans examined has implemented innovative geriatric...

Recently, some states have revisited the concept of reinsurance to spread risk in insurance markets, improve the predictability of claims, and reduce the markup of premiums that insurers charge as a buffer against unanticipated claims. This brief examines efforts in Arizona, Connecticut, Idaho,...